Page 98 of The Beast Who Begged Me

“He could,” I admit. “But I don’t think he will. He already screwed up his chance to sell me to one of his friends. I think he could be persuaded into another auction.”

“You think,” Rossi says.

“I can’t be sure. But I know the way a man like Daniel King thinks. If he can humiliate an enemy before killing them, he will. If he can make money off it at the same time, even better.”

It’s the kind of thing my grandfather would do. He’d make it personal. Make it hurt.

“I don’t like the odds,” Rossi says, but he glances at Luca D’Amato.

Luca is studying me. “I supported restoring your Family. I’m not going to help you get yourself killed before you’ve done anything with it.”

“If I’m going to be killed, this is the most convenient time for you.” Dami makes a sound of exasperation behind me, but I keep going. “Before the businesses are established. Before you’ve returned anything you can’t easily divide up again. Before losing the Clemenzas leaves too big a hole for someone worse to fill.”

Alessi looks interested for the first time this morning. “Kid’s got a point,” he says. “No harm, no foul, eh?”

“And consider what happens if you do nothing,” I add, pressing the point. “King learns he can take someone from a Don’s household, murder his guard, and have the Commission look the other way.”

For a few seconds, the room is silent.

“What do you need from us?” Rossi asks at last.

“Three people from each of you. Two,” I amend when Alessi scowls. “Experienced people who want the job. I need volunteers who know exactly what they’re walking into.”

“And how do you propose to tell your people when you have found your friend?” Luca asks.

“I’ll need a way to signal them that will survive a search.”

“He’ll fucking strip you and search you for any transmitters,” Dami says bluntly. “You know he will.”

“Then it can’t be in my clothes. There must be something. We’ll figure it out.”

Vitali leans in to speak quietly to D’Amato, who listens and then nods. “We have something that might do it,” Vitali says to us all. “I’ll need to check the range first.”

“You will,” Luca says. “And three hours is your limit, Cal, assuming we can establish a way to keep contact. If you haven’t found your friend by then, the team goes in to get you out and reassess. Nobody delays that to settle a private score.”

King is a very fucking private score. But Sammy needs me to get Luca D’Amato on board. “Agreed.”

Luca’s mouth tightens. “I dislike this plan considerably, Don Clemenza.”

I wait.

“Vitali wants in,” he says at last. “You’ll have him.”

“And me, Boss,” Nick Fontana says from behind him.

“I hope that’s acceptable,” D’Amato says to me, with enough irony that I can practically taste it. “My security man and my Underboss. You’d better get them back to me in one piece.”

Rossi sighs and takes out his phone. “I got a few I think would be interested. These Russian bastards are getting greedy.”

Alessi looks annoyed. “They’re just Russians. What do you expect?”

“I expect them to understand the rules of this city,” Luca says, hard enough to make Alessi stop shuffling about and reluctantly pull out his phone, too.

“Thank you,” I say. “Have everyone come here and I’ll brief them.”

I glance at Dami. He’s looking at me with an expression that makes my stomach tighten, but he says nothing until Luca and the others move away to make their calls.

Then he speaks.